Weekly Workout Recap: 8

Monday - 2.9miles, 31:50mins, av pace 11:01min/mile
Tuesday - REST (walking)
Wednesday - Yoga 1hour
Thursday - Body Pump 1hour
Friday - 2miles, 23:22mins, av pace 11:36min/mile
Saturday - REST (sports massage)
Sunday - 4miles, 45:17mins, av pace 11: 19min/mile

Monday was my first run in my new shoes!

I had 3miles on the agenda so headed down to the river - it was a little cold and windy but I love running next to water, it's really relaxing. Plus it was a route I hadn't tried before, which is always more interesting than running somewhere you know!

I'd been having issues with my right knee aching the previous couple of days and had to stop a couple of times on this run to stretch my legs- it gave me a good opportunity to take some photos! But I still ended up cutting my run a bit short as my knee was quite painful and I didn't want to push it.

I got a coffee and walked the last mile home, and sat with an ice pack on my knee for a bit, which seemed to help.

Tuesday my knee was really stiff and achey and I started feeling really despondent that I'd done something serious- that's the problem with the abundance of information on the internet; you start googling your symptoms and in a few minutes you're convinced you have something terrible and debilitating!

Sitting at my desk all day definitely didn't help so I went for a walk after work - it was actually a lovely sunny evening and the sunshine really lifted my mood (the Maltesers didn't hurt either!).

I did a lot of stretching and leg exercises when I got back and made good use of my ice pack again- I have this one, which is brilliant because you can bend it into whatever shape you need and strap to your leg so you don't have to sit there holding it. You can actually supposedly heat it up as well, although I haven't tried that.

Wednesday I went to a yoga class which was great, although it definitely illustrated that my leg muscles are pretty weak! I am becoming quite a fan of yoga and have downloaded this app so that I can try and do more at home- ok, so it's not as good as having a teacher who can correct your form but it seems like a good introduction to some of the more simpler poses, and great if you're travelling.

Daily Yoga app for Android

I wasn't sure about Thursday's Body Pump class and thought it might aggravate my knee further- in the end I went, but cut right back on the weight for the squats and lunges and it seemed to be fine. These are the sort of exercises I need to be doing to strengthen my hamstrings and glutes, but of course doing them whilst injured may not be the best plan.

On Friday after a thorough warm-up, I gingerly headed out for a test run- just 2miles down to my favourite spot by the river and back. Things felt ok, just my usual leg-achey-ness from running more than my body is used to, or would probably like me to! I'm not a natural runner by any means! 🙂

On Saturday I had a Sports Massage booked at the Surrey Massage Clinic in Dorking- it was a painful experience as I could feel her working all the knots out of my calves and hamstrings, but my legs (apart from being a bit tender) felt much better afterwards!

I had high hopes for my run on Sunday with my legs newly massaged. My right leg was still a bit sore- the girl who did my massage said my right leg was worse than my left, so she may have been a bit more aggressive on that side! I ran 4miles along the river enjoying the sunshine and watching all the rowers/scullers out on the water 🙂 My knee started hurting on the way back- I know my form tends to drop as I get tired so I was trying to pay attention to that, but I could still feel a definite ache. It's not anything specific that I can pinpoint, just soreness around the kneecap, so am hoping that leg strengthening exercises and stretching will help, otherwise I'll have to get it checked out.